To every objection I gave her, she gave me the most powerful counter-arguments... by using my own words against me!

“Dad, it’s just an experiment... you’re always saying we should try things out in a small way to decide if we like it.”

Ugh... I did teach her that.

“Dad, you don’t have to pay for it. I’ll pay for it with my allowance. You always say my money is for me to practice making my own money choices.”

Crap... I did say that too.

“Dad, it may be a mistake, but it would be my mistake. You’re always saying making mistakes is how we learn. Think of this as a learning opportunity for me.”

I was thinking... Oh, so she actually has been listening to me for the last 14 years, and I’m getting barraged with my own words.

“Dad, I know how important you believe education is; why would you deny me an educational opportunity?”

It is very hard to argue against your own words and win.

And therein lies the greatest sales technique in the world...

LISTENING.

Specifically, the technique is to listen to the other person, figure out what he wants, and show him how to get what he wants.

In every facet of life, whether you realize it or not, you’re selling your ideas to other people.

When you start your career, you’re hired for your technical ability as an individual contributor.

When you progress in your career, you’re promoted for your ability to work with, lead, or manage other people.

Anytime there’s another person in the room, somebody is trying to sell the other on some concept, idea, or proposed course of action.

(Make no doubt about it, my teenager was selling to me, and pulling out all the stops too.)

The question isn’t whether or not you’ll find yourself in “sales” situations.

The only question is whether or not you’re going to be any good at it.

If you'd like to be, consider my class on How to Sell Your Ideas in Everyday Life. Although this class has not yet been available this year, I will have a limited release later this month.

To be notified of the release, just complete the form below.

-Victor

P.S. In the end, I decided to let my daughter buy only one pair of false eyelashes. She can wear them only at home and for one day only. End of experiment.

(And I secretly hope she absolutely hates it.)

It’s hard to get upset at her for actually applying everything I taught her. If you’d like to learn more about how to sell yourself, your ideas, and your proposals, then complete the form below to learn more.

Yes, Please Notify Me of any Future
Release of the program on
How to Sell Your Ideas

First Name *

Last Name *

Email *

This form collects your name and email so that we can add you to our interest list for How to Sell. Check out our privacy policy for details on how we protect and manage your submitted data.

]]>https://www.caseinterview.com/false-eyelashes/feed0https://www.caseinterview.com/false-eyelashesThe Rank Order Priority Listhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/caseinterview/~3/btFo5Z7EyQ4/rank-order-priority-list
https://www.caseinterview.com/rank-order-priority-list#respondWed, 09 May 2018 21:57:11 +0000https://direct.caseinterview.com/?p=27341Most of my work involves either a corporate strategic plan or a personal strategic plan.

The core of strategic planning centers around deciding on priorities and allocating resources to those priorities.

A good strategic planning process is quite painful. It’s painful because resources are always constrained. This has been true in every strategic plan with which I’ve ever been involved.

This is as true for the Fortune 500 company as it is for the one-person company.

It is as true for a departmental annual plan as it is for a single person’s career plan.

Resources are always constrained. Period.

The key to effective strategic planning doesn’t come from assuming resources (e.g., time, people, finances) that you don’t have; but rather from making tough choices regarding which priorities are more important than others.

Somebody once asked me, “What is the one strategic planning tool that most people and companies don’t use that would make the biggest difference in the quality of their plans?”

My answer is very simple.

Rank order your priority list.

Most people’s priority lists look like this:

High-Priority* Project A
* Project B
* Project C
* Project D

Medium-Priority* Project E
* Project F
* Project G
* Project H

When you rank order your priority list, you’re forced to pick only one project to be your #1.

You pick another project to be your #2 priority, another for your #3, etc.

When it comes to resource allocation (such as finances or time on your personal calendar), the #1 priority gets ALL available resources needed to fully support the project plan.

It gets as much capital as it can effectively use.

It gets access to the top talent in the company.

It gets access to your most productive day of the week on your calendar.

It gets access to your most productive time of day in your schedule.

If your company uses a shared resources model (such as a centralized IT department that supports multiple divisions), the #1 priority gets to jump to the front of the line for any requests.

The leftover resources (that the #1 priority doesn’t need or can’t use efficiently) get allocated to the #2 priority.

The #2 priority gets access to ALL of those resources until it too can’t use any more resources effectively or efficiently.

Then the #3 priority gets access, etc.

Using this approach, the #1 priority in the company often gets access to 50% to 80% of the discretionary resources in the company.

In your job, your #1 work priority gets access to Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings when you’re most productive.

In your personal life, your #1 priority gets access to all of your free time after work and on the weekends.

In the rank order model, there can only be ONE #1 priority.

This forces you to choose very, very carefully.

This is a difficult choice to make.

When you can only choose one, it forces you to agonize over it.

It forces you to think diligently about your goals.

It forces you to consider tradeoffs thoughtfully.

When you use this approach, you dramatically improve the chances your #1 priority will be successful.

You also dramatically reduce your chances that priorities #4 through #10 will succeed.

Given that likelihood, you also naturally come to the conclusion that maybe you shouldn’t have any priorities beyond your top 3.

Strategy is about making explicit tradeoff decisions.

Most people don’t like to make tradeoff decisions, so they don’t.

It doesn’t mean there won’t be a tradeoff. There’s always a tradeoff.

Every tradeoff involves positive and negative consequences.

The only question is whether you choose the positive consequences you want (and the negative consequences you can live with) or if you leave it up to chance and inertia.

Additional Resources

If you found this article useful and want to receive more articles like it, sign up to receive approximately one article each week by email. Just fill out the form below:

First Name *

Email *

This form collects your name and email so that we can add you to our newsletter list on How to Live and Amazing Life. Check out our privacy policy for details on how we protect and manage your submitted data! www.caseinterview.com/privacy.

]]>https://www.caseinterview.com/rank-order-priority-list/feed0https://www.caseinterview.com/rank-order-priority-list“Blue Collar” Sales and Sellinghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/caseinterview/~3/MMPvM2_3iH0/blue-collar-sales
https://www.caseinterview.com/blue-collar-sales#respondWed, 02 May 2018 18:10:14 +0000https://direct.caseinterview.com/?p=27127Most people who get an Ivy League MBA do so to get a coveted job at a consulting firm, investment bank, or in industry.

They aspire to be a McKinsey partner, a Goldman Sachs partner, a startup CEO or a leader in industry.

Many get an MBA to avoid the most “blue collar” of professional jobs... being a salesperson.

I find the prejudice against working in sales incredibly ironic.

What do you think McKinsey or Goldman Sachs partners are anyway?

They are salespeople!

What do you think CEOs are?

They are salespeople too!

The CEO is selling the company’s product and market leadership to customers.

The CEO is selling new recruits on why they should join the company.

What do you think an executive-level role in industry is?

It’s sales too.

The VP of Engineering is selling her boss and colleagues on a larger staffing budget.

The CFO is selling Wall Street on why the company’s stock is a better investment than other stocks.

The VP of Marketing is selling the executive team on a new marketing strategy.

In short, every senior level role in ANY functional area in ANY industry involves selling — the selling of yourself, your ideas, and your proposals.

It is completely unavoidable.

There are only two unanswered questions that remain:

1) Whether you like the idea or not, will you accept and embrace the idea that you are in everyday sales situations more than you realize?

2) Will you decide to improve your sales skills, or not?

If your answers are "yes," you would benefit from my recent class on How to Sell Your Ideas in Everyday Life. Although it has not yet been available this year, I will have a limited release later this month.

To be notified of the release, and for future articles on improving your sales skills, just complete the form below.

Yes, Please Notify Me of any Future
Release of the program on
How to Sell Your Ideas

First Name *

Last Name *

Email *

This form collects your name and email so that we can add you to our interest list for How to Sell. Check out our privacy policy for details on how we protect and manage your submitted data.

]]>https://www.caseinterview.com/blue-collar-sales/feed0https://www.caseinterview.com/blue-collar-salesSurviving vs. Thrivinghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/caseinterview/~3/OqZssh2EjWo/surviving-vs-thriving
https://www.caseinterview.com/surviving-vs-thriving#respondWed, 25 Apr 2018 23:25:16 +0000https://direct.caseinterview.com/?p=26769You can approach life in one of two ways.

You can focus on surviving, or you can focus on thriving.

There’s a time and place for both approaches.

Like most things in life, neither is inherently good or bad.

These approaches are merely tools — to be applied in the appropriate situation.

More than approaches to life, they are categories of skills.

Surviving is a skill set.

Thriving is also a skill set.

Having spent many years of my life in both categories, I have concluded that the skill sets are quite different.

The most important thing to understand is not mixing up when to use each skill set.

A survival skill set is appropriate when you have a very real risk of not being able to pay the bills, get food, or have a place to sleep at night.

A thriving skill set is appropriate when the actual risk of being homeless is very low.

When it’s time to thrive, the focus is on life fulfillment, meaning, and contribution.

The problem comes in the transition period between the two.

If you want to transition from surviving to thriving, using more of your survival skills doesn’t work.

For example, if your focus is survival, always take the highest paying opportunity.

If money is the only thing standing between you and starvation, by all means, take the highest paying job you can find.

However, if your goal is to thrive, you might take the job that’s more enjoyable with better long-term potential, even if it pays less.

If you merely want to survive, you may not need to build relationships with others.

If you want to thrive (both personally and professionally), it's awfully difficult to do so without building high-quality relationships with other people.

(Professionally, you want a varied and diverse network of contacts. Personally, you want a robust support network of friends and family with whom you derive great personal joy and satisfaction.)

If you want to survive, an argument could be made for sabotaging other people’s careers -- if doing so benefits your career in the short run.

If you want to thrive, a counter-argument could be made for helping other people’s careers -- as they may be able and willing to help your career in the long run.

Here are my two questions for you to consider:

1) Which strategic focus serves you better right now: surviving or thriving?

2) Are your daily actions consistent with your answer to question #1?

Additional Resources

If you found this article useful and want to receive more articles like it, sign up to receive approximately one article each week by email. Just fill out the form below:

First Name *

Email *

This form collects your name and email so that we can add you to our newsletter list on How to Live and Amazing Life. Check out our privacy policy for details on how we protect and manage your submitted data! www.caseinterview.com/privacy.

]]>https://www.caseinterview.com/surviving-vs-thriving/feed0https://www.caseinterview.com/surviving-vs-thrivingGetting What You Deserve...http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/caseinterview/~3/vzydES5iQ_0/getting-what-you-deserve
https://www.caseinterview.com/getting-what-you-deserve#respondWed, 18 Apr 2018 20:11:37 +0000https://direct.caseinterview.com/?p=26679When I started my career, I was under the impression that in the workplace you always get what you deserve.

I was naive and wrong.

There are plenty of deserving people who never get the credit, promotion, or raises they deserve.

Perhaps you can relate.

Many years later, I realized the following truth:

You don’t get what you deserve. You get what you “sell” others on giving you.

Nearly all of life involves selling, persuading, or convincing others to do what you want them to do.

If you don’t know how to sell your ideas, you don’t get very far in your career.

With no exception, your career progress is always in the hands of others.

If you work in a large company, your career progress is determined by your boss and your boss’s boss.

If you change jobs, your career progress is determined by the interviewer.

If you work for yourself, your career progress is determined by whether your clients hire you or not.

In literally every aspect of your professional life, your career progression is determined largely by others.

This is an inconvenient truth.

Another inconvenient truth is that if you want to get ahead, you must get good at selling your ideas and yourself to others.

If sales is not your strong suit, it’s worth investing the energy to learn this useful skill.

I recently conducted an 8-hour class on How to Sell Your Ideas in Everyday Life. Although it has not yet been available this year, I will have a limited release next month. For future articles on how to sell your ideas, and to be notified of the release, just complete the form below.

Yes, Please Notify Me of any Future
Release of the program on
How to Sell Your Ideas

First Name *

Last Name *

Email *

This form collects your name and email so that we can add you to our interest list for How to Sell. Check out our privacy policy for details on how we protect and manage your submitted data.

]]>https://www.caseinterview.com/getting-what-you-deserve/feed0https://www.caseinterview.com/getting-what-you-deserveProblem Talker vs. Problem Solverhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/caseinterview/~3/P0M5_68Bvgc/problem-talker-vs-solver
https://www.caseinterview.com/problem-talker-vs-solver#commentsWed, 11 Apr 2018 20:12:23 +0000https://direct.caseinterview.com/?p=26619When my oldest daughter was four years old, she would constantly blurt out all her problems.

"I am hungry."

"I want my doll."

"I am cold."

She got very good at talking about the problems.

She kept expecting me and her mother to solve all her problems for her.

I finally got tired of this and came up with the following concept:

You can be a “problem talker” or a “problem solver.”

"If you are hungry, what’s something you could do to be a problem solver?"

She thought about it and said, "Get a snack from the fruit bowl."

I said, “That’s a good way to be a problem SOLVER.”

"If you want your doll and it’s in the other room, what could you do to solve your own problem?”

She thought about it and said, “I guess I could go over there and pick her up myself.”

I said, “That’s being a good problem SOLVER.”

Then I said, “If you’re cold, how could you solve your problem?"

She said, “Maybe I could go put on my jacket.”

I said, “Yes, that’s very good. You’re a very good problem SOLVER.”

From that point forward, anytime she’d talk about her problems, I’d remind her by saying...

“Honey, are you being a problem talker right now, or a problem solver?"

I’ll ask you the same question:

This week, are you being a problem talker or a problem solver?

Mastery at one of those two skills results in greater career achievement.

Mastery of the other skill gets you nowhere.

Additional Resources

If you found this article useful and want to receive more articles like it, sign up to receive approximately one article each week by email. Just fill out the form below:

First Name *

Email *

This form collects your name and email so that we can add you to our newsletter list on How to Live and Amazing Life. Check out our privacy policy for details on how we protect and manage your submitted data! www.caseinterview.com/privacy.

The more you’re able to get OTHERS who work for or with you to get things done, the more you succeed.

This key insight baffles most individual contributors that struggle to get into managerial and leadership positions.

It’s counter-intuitive.

When you only manage yourself, your personal output = your team's total output.

When you manage nine other people, your personal output is only 10% of the team’s total output.

There’s far more leverage in managing the other nine people to raise the overall output of your team.

The more senior you become, the more you’re recognized and rewarded for results achieved THROUGH OTHER PEOPLE.

Superior people managers possess a skill that others lack. They possess a high degree of emotional intelligence.

People are not machines.

They are governed by human nature, psychology, and feelings.

The great people managers are able to connect with others at a human (aka emotionally aware) level.

When you have high emotional intelligence (EQ)...

You can read other people’s body language to judge someone else’s reaction to an idea, proposal, or request before they even say a word.

You can tell when a person says one thing, but actually means the exact opposite.

You have the ability to determine what somebody else wants and to help them get what they want (in a way that gets you what you want).

When you manage other people, high EQ skills are a must. It’s the key skill to help you get more out of your team.

When you don’t manage any other people, high EQ skills are even more important.

When you have no formal authority, the only way you get others to help you is showing them a way to get what they want by helping you get what you want.

(This is what MBB consultants do every day, all day long... no formal authority, yet deeply influential at the highest levels of the organization.)

If your career involves working with, persuading, or managing others, it’s worth developing your EQ skills — skills that are with rare exception never taught in the classroom.

Because these skills are so important, but rarely taught, I plan to teach a class on this specific topic. To learn more about developing your EQ skills, just complete the form below to be included when I send out articles and resources on improving emotional intelligence, including information on my upcoming class.

For most questions, I can answer off the top of my head with barely a thought.

For this question, I had to think about it for a minute.

I’ve decided to share my answer below. I added a few details I neglected to mention in person.

“Yes. I consider myself successful, but not because of any commonly used measure of success, such as power, prestige, status, or financial success.

"I consider myself successful because I am able to live life on my own terms.

"I spend time personally and professionally with people that I want to.

"I don’t spend any time with people I don’t want to.

"I do work that I love doing.

"I am happy.

"I am able to pay all the bills, take a vacation occasionally, and have some money left over to save.”

I then went on to explain that I believe “success” is most useful as a subjective and personal construct, rather than as an objective construct where everybody in society shares the same definition.

Stated differently, I feel comfortable determining whether my own life has been successful.

I do not feel comfortable making that determination for anyone else.

Similarly, I don’t think it is useful to invite, allow, or take too seriously other people’s assessments of our own success, or lack thereof.

If you’re living life in a way that’s personally meaningful to you, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about it.

One of my biggest life goals has been to coach little league softball for all three of my girls.

Early in my career, I estimated the likelihood of various potential goals as follows:

Make McKinsey Partner - Possible

Start and run my own company profitably - Possible

Write and publish a book - Possible

Coach little league softball - ?????

I don’t know any McKinsey partners that coach little league.

I don’t know any startup CEOs that coach little league.

I don’t know any people that are extremely financially “successful” that coach little league.

In the end, I was able to pull it off. I’m probably more proud of coaching little league than I am most of my other career achievements.

I feel this way because coaching little league has great PERSONAL meaning for me.

What’s personally meaningful to you?

What’s your own definition of success for yourself?

What’s the life and career you want for yourself?

Notice the common thread in all three of these questions related to “success.”

They are all focused on YOU and nobody else.

Additional Resources

If you found this article useful and want to receive more articles like it, sign up to receive approximately one article each week by email. Just fill out the form below:

First Name *

Email *

This form collects your name and email so that we can add you to our newsletter list on How to Live and Amazing Life. Check out our privacy policy for details on how we protect and manage your submitted data! www.caseinterview.com/privacy.

You just need to spend a little time figuring out how to best describe your achievements in a specific format that McKinsey values.

To make this preparation easier, I’ve put together my Guide to the Personal Experience Interview with everything you need to prepare. It is now available for the first time, and for a limited time. You can order for the next 7 days.

I changed my mind when I took a class on Power and Politics at the Stanford GSB.

My professor made these simple declarative statements.

Anytime there are two people in the room, there will be "politics.”

Politics occurs when two (or more) people seek goals that may not be identical.

That’s it.

That’s politics.

It’s two people who want something, and that something may or may not be the same thing.

“Politics” occurs when you go out to lunch with a friend and you prefer Mexican food while your friend prefers Italian.

“Politics” occurs when two Vice Presidents want the company to grow — one wants to do so by creating new products; the other by promoting old products more aggressively.

“Politics” occurs when you want a promotion while your boss wants a promotion too.

“Politics” occurs when one engineer wants to improve the quality level of a product while another wants to improve functionality.

Sure, sometimes corporate “politics” seems unsavory in some way. However, more often it’s just a bunch of well-intentioned people who just want different things.

Sometimes you’ll see the differences as small and compatible.

For example, you getting a promotion doesn’t prevent your boss from getting one too.

Other times, you’ll see the differences as large and potentially incompatible.

If one Vice President wants to create new products and the other wants to promote existing ones more aggressively, the budget might not be sufficient to fund both ideas.

To navigate corporate politics well, you want to figure out what all the key people in a situation want.

Initially, it doesn’t matter what you want.

What everyone else wants is far more important.

Once you figure this out, you want to come up with a solution that gets everyone else what they want in a way that happens to give you what you want too.

You don’t propose that your boss give you a promotion.

You propose a plan that helps your boss get HER promotion — and of course, someone will need to take her over her existing role, which you would happily do.

See the difference?

One reason ex-consultants do so well in industry is because they possess a set of skills that gives them an enormous advantage over their industry peers.

Navigating corporate politics is only one of a dozen core consulting skills former consultants bring with them to industry.

To learn more about how to navigate corporate politics, the many other skills former consultants typically possess that make them valuable in industry, and how to learn the most useful ones in a day or two, Click Here.